News In Brief

Gov. Pete Wilson of California and leading legislators have reached
an agreement not to suspend Proposition 98, the constitutional
provision that guarantees schools about 40 percent of state
revenues.

With the Governor's assurance that the school-funding guarantee
would be held intact, the legislature was expected to pass a measure
that would recapture an additional $400 million in funds budgeted to
districts this year, before the state's growing deficit triggered
automatic reductions in state school aid.

When added to about $840 million already recaptured in a similar
fashion this month, the funds bridged the gap between the Governor and
legislature on their education-funding proposals.

The accord was seen as a hollow victory, however, for the state's
education lobbies, which had bitterly fought a Proposition 98
suspension. (See Education Week, April 24, 1991.)

Even with the funding guarantee in place, state schools are likely
to be $1.2 billion short of meeting their projected budget needs for
the coming fiscal year, state education officials said, and may have to
save $800 million by freezing teacher salaries and $400 million by
slashing funding for educational programs.

Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa has vetoed a bill that would have
enabled schools to teach after-school parenting classes, claiming the
plan could boost property taxes.

In passing the measure, lawmakers had sought to ensure that children
begin school with strong educational preparation. Fearful of imposing
new programs on school districts, however, legislators left it to
school boards to decide whether and how to devise parenting
courses.

The bill authorized districts to increase their budgets to pay for
the programs, with a promise that state money might eventually replace
the property taxes that districts would use to fund them.

But Mr. Branstad warned that the measure could raise property taxes
by as much as $19 million. A tight budgetary outlook, he added, made it
unlikely that state funds would become available in the near
future.

The Indiana legislature last week was still working out an agreement on
a budget that is expected to provide a modest increase in school
aid.

The legislature ended its regular session in early May without a
budget and had to be called back by Gov. Evan Bayh for two consecutive
special sessions to resolve lingering partisan disputes, primarily
centering around Congressional redistricting. (See Education Week, May
8, 1991.)

The House and Senate budget plans, which were still being reconciled
by a conference committee last week, both call for a 4 percent increase
in tuition support in the first year of the 1992-93 biennium and 3
percent in the second. But budget negotiators had not yet settled on
how much of the increase should be funded through local property taxes,
the suspension of an automobile excise-tax cut, or the use of state
cash reserves.

Illinois Board of Education officials said last week that they have
been taking steps to keep a state law that provides funds for
safety-related school improvements from being used by districts to fund
other work.

The Chicago Tribune last week reported that districts are continuing
to exploit the law to fund, without local voter approval, new schools
and other improvements that are not safety-related and later cost
taxpayers millions of dollars.

Money earmarked to protect children has been used to buy gymnasium
floors, install lockers, remodel auditoriums, and repair swimming
pools, the newspaper said.

The state's Health and Life Safety Code, enacted in response to a
1958 fire in a Roman Catholic school that killed 92 children and three
nuns, allows public school districts to fund safety-enhancement
projects without voter approval by levying special property taxes or
selling bonds.

A spokesman for the state education department said officials there
have been seeking to halt abuse of the law since 1987. But the Tribune
reported that districts continue to exploit the code to fund projects
that voters had rejected.

Louisiana would be required to add 30 minutes of instructional time
to the school day by the 1993-94 academic year, under legislation
approved by the House Education Committee.

Current law requires schools to provide 330 minutes of instruction a
day, and have the option of providing 360 minutes. Under the bill,
approved this month, 10 minutes would be added to the school day each
academic year until a mandatory level of 360 minutes was reached.
Schools would have the option of providing up to 390 minutes.

Last month, the panel reported out a measure that would add 20
instructional days to the school year by the 2000-01 academic year.

Oklahoma legislators have ordered the state education department to
study other tests before considering the General Educational
Development test for a high-school competency exam.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett this spring
proposed using the ged as an exit examination for all high-school
seniors. (See Education Week, April 3, 1991.)

But after many lawmakers complained that the ged was neither
rigorous enough nor geared to the state's specific needs, the
legislature this month asked Ms. Garrett to prepare a study of existing
alternative tests by Sept. 1.

Wisconsin students should be required to obtain a "certificate of
initial mastery" by age 16 or the end of the 10th grade before becoming
eligible for work, a state panel studying workforce issues has
recommended.

The idea put forward by the Governor's Commission for a Quality
Workforce in Wisconsin is based on a report issued last year by a
national commission and is similar to proposals being considered by
task forces in several other states. In addition, a
high-school-achievement requirement is a key element of a school-reform
bill under consideration in the Oregon legislature. (See Education
Week, May 15, 1991.)

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.